Effort Comparison on Strava

Effort Comparison is a powerful tool that allows athletes to compare performances on favorite segments. Each athlete is represented as a pin on the map to show relative position over the course of the segment effort. Interacting with the chart below will allow the user to move the pins forward and backward on the segment according to GPS position.

The effort roster is a Summit feature which lists the efforts being compared. These could be efforts from two different people (typically yourself and the CR/KOM, if you've tackled the segment before) or two efforts by the same person (your latest effort and your PR, for example). The first effort in the roster is considered the "baseline" to which other efforts are compared. Summit users can toggle a user from the roster into the baseline by clicking the up-arrow on the right-hand side of an effort's roster row.

Below the map and roster is a chart that represents two things: the segment's elevation profile and the time gaps between compared athletes at any given point along the segment. Hovering over the chart will move the "point of action," and clicking the Play button along the scrubber below will trigger 20-second playback of the virtual race.

Strava Summit members have the ability to customize the efforts compared in the roster by choosing efforts and athletes from the leaderboard below. Interested in comparing your top five attempts on a local hill? Simply choose the "My Results" leaderboard and select your best performances. More interested in how you and your friends stacked up this weekend? Use the "I'm Following" leaderboard and "This Week" filter.

What do the lines on the chart represent?

The colored lines on the chart represent time gaps of the athletes in the roster relative to the black or "baseline" effort. Scale and units of time are described on the right-hand side of the chart, and the x-axis represents distance along the segment. When the colored line is above the baseline, it means that athlete's effort was ahead of the baseline at that particular mile or kilometer. When the colored line is below, it means that athlete was behind.

How do I customize the roster?

Strava Summit members have the ability to their Effort Comparison view, adding new athletes or efforts, or even comparing their own efforts. These efforts and more can be found in a leaderboard module that lives below the page elements described above.

What about mobile devices?

Due to the complex nature of this comparative analysis, Effort Comparison can only be accessed via the web today.

How is Effort Comparison different from RaceShape?

Paul, the creator of RaceShape, joined Strava in 2012. He and several of our other engineers have spent most of the summer refactoring and integrating the technology he developed with Strava's infrastructure. They've been expanding the feature set and improving performance across the board. Effort Comparison is considerably faster, more stable, and gives our athletes the ability to compare a much wider range of efforts (including their own). We're very excited about this tool and we're looking forward to continuing to build and improve its' functionality.